Officials at Lokerse Feesten were delighted when the former The Smiths frontman agreed to join the bill on 4 August (11), marking his first festival slot in the country since launching his solo career in 1988.

They are so determined to keep their star act happy, they have announced a ban on all meat products – including the popular local dish of horse-meat sausages – for the day the singer is scheduled to perform. Food stalls on site will be selling vegetarian dishes instead.

In a statement, the festival organisers said, “The Lokerse Feesten have had their eye on Morrissey for a very long time. For this edition we finally managed to get him over and we are very pleased about this”.

“Further to that, the addition of Morrissey to the line-up meant a welcomed catering challenge for one day. As more and more people are introducing veggie days in their diet, we considered one meatless-day out of 10 Lokerse Feesten days a healthy break for all. Our food stalls will be serving you an array of healthy vegetarian dishes.”

Morrissey famously stormed offstage at California’s Coachella music festival in 2009 after complaining the smell of meat from barbecues on the site was making him feel “sick”.